GTAV stars 'East Coast gangster' - Report

ShortList magazine reveals Rockstar's upcoming open-world game features protagonist who moved to Los Santos for a fresh start; full reveal at 9 a.m. PDT.

Grand Theft Auto V's protagonist will be a gangster from the East Coast. That's according to the latest issue of ShortList magazine (via CVG), which suggests this character decided to move to the game's fictional Los Santos setting for a fresh start.

"But, as in The Godfather III - just as he thought he was out, they pulled him back in," the magazine goes on.

A similar theme ran through the debut trailer for GTAV. In this trailer, an unseen protagonist states, "I wanted to retire from what I was doing, you know? From that…that line of work. Be a good guy for once. A family man."

Do you ever really get a fresh start when you live a life of crime? I mean bridges will be burned, many enemies made no matter where you go. If you were to give up the crime lifestyle and move somewhere else, then that would be more of a fresh start to me. Although you may still have people out to find you.

"protagonist who moved to [insert city] for a fresh start" Now where have I heard that one before? Oh, now I remember, it was in GTA IV. Just because they're reusing that particular thing, doesn't make the game bad though.

@Diablo-B Most people like to relate to the characters they're playing and imagine themselves in the role. Since a majority of hardcore gamers (you know, the ones that would buy GTA) are men, it's a pretty obvious choice to stick with male protagonists for now.

@WCK619 Yeah, I really don't think it's a different universe... pretty certain that there will be elements from the older games crossing over into this one, as has been the case with every GTA game so far.

@bubba_1988 Tommy wouldn't have been ~25 years old. He was a grown man in the 80's so he'd have put on about 25 years. I can't see him being younger than 50. I think he looks like him though. Could be wishful thinking.

@Duke_51@WCK619 This is probably what he is referring to, which sounds pretty accurate. "The games within an Era are considered to share one general storyline and universe. For example, the games within the GTA III Era all share canon, with interconnecting storylines. Whilst there are overlaps between eras (eg Liberty City in GTA III and in GTA IV), these are taken to be influences rather than the same thing." http://gta.wikia.com/Canon

@brunod_f@J_Dangerously Claude is the main character from GTA3. Man I would love to see Tommy back, but only if Ray Liotta does the voice again. But at the same time I could never see Tommy wanting to be a "family man"

Maybe this will clear things up. Since GTAIV, R* decided that any character that had a "physical presence" in the last generation of GTA games, won't make a physical presence in this generation. R* said that the canons of physical characters are separated depending on generation. GTA, GTA: London 1969, GTA London: 1961, GTA 2 are all part of the 2D Grand Theft Auto era, GTA III, Vice City, GTA Advance, San Andreas, LCS, and VCS are part of the 3D Grand Theft Auto era. The only characters that had made an appearance in the 2D and 3D universes are El Burro (GTA/GTA3) and Claude (GTA2/GTA3).

GTA IV began the current generation of Grand Theft Auto games of the High Definition era (GTA IV,Episodes from LC, GTA V) and this starts Rockstar's own rule that specifies that any character that made a physical appearance last generation won't come back this gen. Radio personalities, in game companies, and advertisements in the game are separate and may continues their own "story lines" since they are mostly part of the background.

It's believed to be an alternate version of Lazlow though. Lazlow from GTA IV is not the same Lazlow from III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Also, he's never been part of the storyline. He's just a radio personality.